Good morning! Hope you are all great and had a lovely weekend! I’m off to France today for a few days to check out a wedding venue and looking forward to getting there! We are kicking off this week with a look at Scottish wedding traditions. As you already know, we love learning about different wedding customs and traditions from around the world as many couples like the idea of incorporating them into their destination weddings. Even those not getting married abroad like to include them if they are a part of their heritage. Scottish wedding traditions have to be one of our most popular requests so this post is long overdue, but hopefully well worth the wait! We were so amused by some of these finds, many of them are lots of fun and some might be better off left alone…
The Speerin
Asking your girlfriend’s father for her hand in marriage is surely hard enough, but an old Scottish tradition called “The Speerin” or “The Beukin” meant that not only did the prospective groom have to ask for his lady’s hand, he had to undertake a series of hurdles, trials and tasks at the father’s request before being awarded approval to marry his daughter!
Creeling the Bridegroom
This custom required the bridegroom to carry a creel (a large basket) filled with heavy stones. He had to carry the creel from all around the village until his bride came out of her house and gave him a kiss.
The south of Scotland had a different version of creeling. A married couple were ‘creeled’ as they left the church. Two people at either side of the entrance hold a fishing basked which is tied with a ribbon across the door. The newlyweds then cut the ties and the basket falls to the ground. It is hoped that this tradition will bring health and prosperity to the couple.